Darkspace Calamity (Relic Knights Book 1)

by Christopher Bodan

  “But now she is here, and eager for a fight, if I read her right. I must go oversee the Hatriya vanguard. Make your report to High Priestess Zineda and then join your sisters. Together, we shall bleed this world until we find what we seek.” He strode from the dais and the control deck, calling for his armor.

  Marikan To looked to Lady Zineda.

  The high priestess turned back to the huntress, clearly a bit distracted. “Please, satra. Tell me what you have learned.”

  The younger noh took three breaths. “My lady, I found . . . something. I don’t know what, exactly.” She hesitated only an instant, wondering why she had not named the Source, but she had to push on. “I sme—I followed an esper trail. I don’t know another way to describe it, but I knew it was esper and it lay like blood from wounded prey.” She kept her eyes focused on the platform at Zineda’s feet, but she could tell that the high priestess had leaned forward. “It led me to a, ah . . .” She shook her head and drove on. “A person, a chee. One of their living machines. She was locked in a cell on one of the pirate ships, but I could almost see it.” She raised her gaze and paused at the intent expression on Zineda’s face. “The esper came out of her like water from a spring. It flowed forth in limitless amounts. I—” She shook her head. “I have never seen or heard of anything like it before today. Perhaps it was the artifact we have sought, but I don’t think so. It was still a being, not an object.”

  “There are stories,” Zineda said, at least partly to herself. The high priestess licked her lips. “Stories of those who could see or sense the esper. Perhaps . . .” She trailed off and refocused on the huntress. “Tell me where. Show me where you found it.” She rose, confident and imperious. “Point me to that place, and I will see what you have found. You may, perhaps, have saved us much trouble.” She shrugged and smiled without much kindness. “Or brought us a great deal more. We shall see.”

  Greater trepidation than she cared to admit churned Marikan To’s stomach as she led her high priestess to the embarkation chamber.

  Chapter 14

  Marianne, unknown point, real space

  Malya tapped her foot on the floorboards. She stopped with some effort when she noticed, but that nearly drove her back to pacing. She settled for tapping her foot. Finally she shot a glance at Harker, sitting quietly at his table with stylus in hand, and groaned. He did not look up.

  “How can you just sit there? What’s taking Cross so long? Why did he want us to drop into real space anyway? I’m sure the drives could use the charge, but we were fine, weren’t we? Aren’t we on a schedule?” She threw her hands up at his calm silence. “How can you just sit there?”

  “Patience,” he said, raising his left hand. He made a few quicker notes and then sat back, turning his chair to look at her. “I don’t know what the lord paladin requires, but he’s aware of our urgency. If he felt it important enough to interrupt the journey, then I believe him. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  She eyed him balefully. “You’re awfully calm for someone rushing to save the world.”

  He raised one eyebrow. “You’re awfully anxious for someone who doesn’t quite believe she should be here.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him. “Oh, ha, ha. You’re just lucky I decided to tag along.”

  “I am,” he replied, serious, and turned back to the table.

  Malya sighed and tried to think of something else to say—she had stopped nervously tapping as they talked—but the door chime interrupted her.

  “Enter,” Harker called.

  Sebastian Cross strode into Harker’s cabin, and Malya found her nervousness evaporating in favor of good old-fashioned worry. The paladin had a worn, tight look to his features. He carried a small device in his hand, and the Paragon Jeanne trailed behind. She looked almost as upset as Cross. A few steps behind them came Rin, Betty, and Lug.

  “Forgive me, Captain,” Cross said as Harker stood and frowned at the procession. “This matter concerns her high—” He cleared his throat. “Excuse me, the princess and her companions, so I took the liberty of bringing them along.”

  Harker nodded and motioned for Cross to continue.

  The paladin stepped to the table and set the device on a clear spot. “This portable projector contains all the current encryption keys for Alliance Security and the Peers’ highest priority messages. We received this message on our slip-comms less than an hour ago, but I could only share it with you on this device.” He glanced at Malya, whose heart chilled with the look. “And it’s the sort of thing that needs to be delivered in person.”

  Harker dimmed the lights as the projector flickered into life. The face of a woman with bobbed pink hair and bright eyes formed before them. She had laugh lines around her mouth and eyes, but her face remained serious as she spoke.

  “This message is to all Alliance Security and affiliated agencies. I have received credible intelligence of an omega code event, repeat omega code event. At least one noh dragon fleet has made some sort of bargain with Calico Kate to lead an unknown but likely substantial number of corsairs in a joint attack on Ulyxis within two standard weeks. I repeat, credible intelligence points to a joint pirate and noh attack on Ulyxis within two standard weeks. I have not corroborated this intel, but the source is rated beta green at least. Please take all possible precautions. I am proceeding to Ulyxis now.”

  Cross reached over and shut off the projector. “The rest is repeats and authentication codes,” he said, almost apologetically. “It’s boring—” He cut off as he looked at Malya.

  The princess stared at the empty air where the message had played. She felt disconnected, almost floating. Vaguely, she heard Harker and Betty cursing. The captain said something about unbelievable boldness, but it barely registered. Someone took her arm, and Malya looked around to see Rin’s face very close to her own. Rin said something.

  Malya blinked and shook her head. “What?”

  “Are you okay?” the sniper repeated. “I think the answer is clearly no. How about you sit—”

  Malya shook her hand off. “No.” She turned to see the room staring at her. “No! Don’t do that. Don’t look at me like I might shatter. What are you expecting?”

  Cross glanced at the other paladin, and Jeanne stepped toward Malya. “We expect you to scream,” she said, her voice firm but warm. “We expect you to shout or cry. We expect any number of perfectly human reactions from you when you discover that your home world and family are very likely the targets of the most rapacious and terrifying slavers and murderers in the galaxy.” She shrugged. “Frankly, your current calm is a bit more unnerving.”

  “I’m really not all that calm, if it makes you feel any better,” Malya said. Her arms started to shake. She took a deep breath and turned to Sebastian Cross. “Do you know what is being done?”

  The paladin studied her for three breaths before nodding very slightly to himself. “The Six Peers are responding even now, of course. A series of noh raids by three different dragon fleets over the last week has put us on alert and stretched us a bit thin in the sectors around Ulyxis, but it now seems clear that these were intended as diversions. Unfortunately, it means that we must race to consolidate our strength. The Order of Praetor’s Hundred should be on-planet any day now, and others soon after. We can but hope that it is enough.”

  “It’s not,” Harker said grimly.

  Jeanne shot him a poisonous look, but Cross nodded.

  “True enough, Captain. I know that Alliance Security has already deployed their strength on Ulyxis, called up their reserves, and is negotiating a contract with Black Diamond.” He sighed. “Not ideal, but we all know they are capable soldiers, and for whatever reason, it seems that both Sophia Drake and their Relic Knight One Shot are available.” He shrugged. “Not cheap, but quite effective.”

  Malya nodded, the information washing over her. She tried to think but kept coming up blank.

  “You want to go,” Harker said. He looked at her with genuine empathy.
“You might make it. From here, straining the slip engines, you might make it.”

  “I believe it can be done,” Cross said, glancing from the princess to the pirate and back. “I have already ordered the Inexorable Justice to plot a course. They will likely not arrive before the battle begins, but they will hopefully tip the scales. I will send Navarre Hauer, First of our Paragons. He’s already near Ulyxis, having chased the raids around the sector. He is legendary—”

  “I know his name,” Malya said, realizing only after she had spoken that, in fact, she did. “I’m sorry, Lord Cross. That was rude.” She took two deep breaths.

  The paladin shrugged. “Understandable. They await only my command to depart.”

  “You’re not going?”

  “No. I have given my word to see through this chance to stop the Calamity, and I will. Only the Justice and her complement will go to Ulyxis.”

  Malya nodded, her mind finally sorting through everything. “And you want to know if I will go with them.” She had not asked a question, but both Cross and Harker said yes. She drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. “No. Tell them to go now.”

  Rin and Betty exchanged glances. “Boss,” Betty said gently, “we understand. I think everybody does. If you want to go—” She faltered and stopped as Malya turned to her.

  “Thanks, chief. Really. But I also promised Captain Harker that I’d go to Origin Point if there was any chance of stopping the Calamity. I think there is, so I’m going. Ulyxis is only one world in this galaxy. There’s not much that I—” She stopped, thought, and then chuckled. “Okay, that’s not really true. There might be a lot that one more Relic Knight could do on Ulyxis, but it’s only one world. I’ve got a chance to stop the Calamity from eating the whole rest of the universe. I’ve got to go with that choice.” She nodded slowly to the room. “And that planet really hasn’t been home for a long time.”

  “Your family is still there,” Harker pointed out.

  “And Lord Cross here will make sure that Lord Hauer keeps an eye on them,” she said. “As if he needs to be told to take care of the planetary ruling family.”

  Now Sebastian Cross chuckled.

  Malya smiled. “I’m with you, Captain.”

  “A moment, then,” Cross said, and opened a comm channel. “Captain Molay, First Paragon, you are ordered to proceed to Ulyxis with all speed.”

  “Understood,” a man’s voice replied. “We will update you when we learn the situation.”

  “Thank you, Lord Hauer,” Sebastian said. He paused. “Take care. Something is out of joint here. This looks like a suicide mission, and yet Black Diamond is willing to risk both Drake and One Shot. Send Aspirant Rehfeld to liaise with them, and have her keep her eyes open. Nothing about this situation smells right.”

  “I completely agree, my lord. At least the fight will be straightforward.”

  Cross shook his head, smiling. “We can only hope. Strength through honor, Navarre.”

  “Glory through service, Sebastian,” Navarre replied, and the link cut off. Out the armored window, they saw the massive battle cruiser’s engines glow as it accelerated, rapidly reaching the impossible speed where it wobbled, bled into multi-spectrum light, and then vanished.

  A silence settled over the room. Malya sat and kept staring out at the stars.

  “It makes no sense,” she heard Jeanne mutter. The woman seemed not to realize that she had spoken, because she looked embarrassed when everyone turned to her. “I mean the attack. Why would the noh drive so deep into Alliance territory? Why would the corsairs assist them? What do any of them have to gain from it?”

  “I don’t know,” Malya said. “From what we just talked about, I don’t think anyone knows. Maybe Kenobo could shed some light on it, but I doubt it. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Ulyxis will stand or fall with the forces we send. But that fight doesn’t matter if we don’t succeed.”

  After a moment, Jeanne nodded.

  Malya looked to the others to find them agreeing. “All right then. Let’s get on with it.”

  Chapter 15

  Hydra’s Will, entering Ulyxis orbit

  Once the wayfinder assured her he had fixed the proper location, Zineda dismissed Marikan To to join her sisters. Zineda kept her displeasure disguised; those working in the embarkation room had no business knowing her opinion of the Sarva Knight. And in all fairness, she had to admit that she could find no fault with Marikan To’s performance or service. This fact did not, in any way, lessen the high priestess’s displeasure. If this discovery proved as important as she suspected it would, however, that displeasure might ebb slightly.

  The first waves had already departed for the orbital stations around Ulyxis, ravaging the defenders to let the pirates deal more effectively with the Alliance’s ships. She could hear the warnings, alerts, and preparations of a dragon ship at war echoing through the Hydra’s Will. The deck occasionally vibrated from the vicious deep space combat gaining fury around them. Most of the wayfinders and rift acolytes had moved to the holding pens in the ship’s bowels to transport the beastmasters and their charges, and Zineda appreciated the emptiness of this space. The air before her rippled and wavered as if from an intense heat and split slowly along a thin seam. It reminded her of the wound that opened when she drew a single claw across soft flesh. She could feel and smell the other ship’s atmosphere washing over her like blood.

  She inspected the darkened space. As Marikan To had described, she saw the cages and felt the esper around them, or rather the lack of it. Something clearly dampened the movement of energy in the cages, and Zineda found it a wonder that the tracker had sensed the esper at all. “Keep the rift open,” she told the wayfinder, “and summon some of my priestesses to join me.” She stepped through the portal as the man bowed in reply.

  The air felt cool and smelled of cleaning chemicals and fear. An alarm rang in the distance. A yellow light flashed somewhere off to her right, bathing the cages and prisoners in intermittent strobes. Two pirates in worn and patched red uniforms rushed around the corner directly in front of her, their pistols unready. Their surprise cost them their lives. Spite hissed and leapt toward the one on the left, while Zineda lashed out at the other. Her claws sank through the man’s neck as if punching through dough. He pawed at the wound while he sank down, unable to scream as his life flowed out over his fingers. She stepped quickly to the other who was still batting at her cypher, and ripped his throat out. She lifted her fingers and twined her tongue around them to catch all the blood that she could. It taught her much about the men she had killed, but she savored it purely for the jolt it gave her.

  She strode to the cages. Spite bounded ahead to the prisoner on the left, but Zineda only had eyes for the chee. The robot lay inert, with only a little light flickering in her vacant eyes.

  Spite had begun clawing on the other prisoner’s legs, and she awoke as the high priestess approached. The short, redheaded woman kicked at the cypher, but when she saw the noh, her eyes went wide, and she began to shake.

  “No,” she said without strength.

  She tried to stand and rush forward at the same time, but her limbs could not support her. She fell, and then twisted as the shackles on her wrist and ankle pulled her up short. She cried out, low and weak, and Zineda saw the marks of clumsy torture across her back, shoulders, and arms. Her captors had beaten and probably lashed her.

  “Get away from her,” the woman hissed. “Or by all the doctrines of esper, I’ll—”

  Zineda glanced at the prisoner and smiled. The hungry expression brought the feeble flow of threats to a choking end.

  “No,” Zineda said. “I don’t have an interest in you, little witch, but if you prove bothersome, I might change my mind.”

  She set her hand gently on the lock of the chee’s cage. Raw destruction esper flowed from her, and the lock blackened as after decades of corrosion. The bars on the door bent and drooped like wilting vines. She flexed her fingers, took a firm hold on the ruin
ed metal, and wrenched the gate free. She stepped across the threshold just as the far bulkhead door hissed open. A crowd of corsairs raced in, heavy weapons raised, led by a furious man with a mechanical arm.

  “You’ll step back from that chee, if you know what’s good for you,” he bellowed. He leveled his sword in her direction as he closed on Zineda. “She’s my prize, and I’ll say what happens to her.”

  “Your prize,” Zineda said carefully. Her mind raced, abandoning the idea of attacking almost at once. They could too easily drive her away and then move the chee. She licked at her blood-flecked lips. “You took her?”

  “Aye,” the man said. “I’m Captain Golden Vance. The Black Spot is my ship, and that chee is my prize. Now. Step. Back.”

  Zineda glanced at the faintly shimmering rift as she moved slowly away from the cage. She could make it if she needed to, but this opportunity was simply too good to abandon yet. “You took her, but you’ve done nothing with her save this.”

  Vance frowned but said nothing.

  “Yes, there’s little more you could do, I expect.” She thought of Calico Kate. “There’s no profit in that.”

  “It’s nothing to you,” he said.

  “But what if it could be?” Zineda said quickly. A fish-tailed cypher rose over the captain’s shoulder but looked at nothing save for the chee. “If you could have profited from her, you would have already. And what good is a prize that brings no profit?” Zineda spread her arms slowly and held Vance’s skeptical gaze. “Perhaps we can both profit from her.”

  He squinted doubtfully, but the point of his sword lowered. “How?”

  “I wish to study her.” She saw his defenses start to return and hurried on. “I believe she is an artifact our god desires.” She cast doubtful eyes on the recumbent robot. “But I can’t see why. I cannot do anything with her until I understand her.”

  “She’s of value to you, then,” Vance said. He made no effort to disguise his calculation, so she let her interest show. “I’ll not loan her out. If you want her, you buy, and I won’t sell cheap.” He sneered, though she could see more bravado than actual contempt in the expression—a negotiation tactic. “Your people aren’t famous for their wealth, least ways in any form I can use.”